Star Wars: The Legend of the Alicorn

by Hudibadudi

Chapter 4: Rescue

Chapter 4: Rescue

A human with long hair and a beard emerged from the forest and walked slowly toward Dups and Mira. He wore an old robe and a sword hung from a belt around his waist. As he approached, Dups and Mira turned to meet him. He stopped about twenty paces away from them. “Hello there,” he said. “My name is Hylok Kon. Did you come to rescue me, by any chance?” He saw them staring at his sword. “Oh, you don't have to worry about me. I don't mean you any harm,” he reassured them.

Finally Dups spoke up. “Hello. I'm Dups Winstar and this is Mira. And uh, no, we aren't here to rescue you. Sorry. We were forced to land here to escape some trouble with pirates.” He wished to himself that he had his weapons with him, even if this man didn't seem threatening. “Why are you here?” Dups asked.

Hylok was silent for a moment and looked down at the ground. “The story is far too long to be told right now, and I don't think that you need to hear it even if we did have time.” He paused before continuing. “Is your ship in good repair?”

Dups sighed. “Not exactly. It took a lot of damage when we landed and ...” he said before Mira pulled him off to the side.

“Don't tell him about that stuff,” she whispered into his ear. “What if he just takes the ship after it's repaired and leaves us here?” She looked over toward the stranger, making sure that he wasn't listening to their conversation before continuing, “We have no way of knowing whether or not we can trust him.”

“Look,” Dups said, “there is no reason for us to think that this man means us any harm. And what would he gain by leaving us here?”

“I don't know. He just seems, suspicious,” she said.

Dups sighed in frustration and turned back to face Hylok, who had a slightly confused look on his face. “Oh, she just doesn't know whether or not to trust you right now,” Dups stated with a smirk.

“Dups!” yelled Mira.

She would have punched Dups right in the face had Hylok not stepped in and kept the two apart. “Both of you, calm down and listen,” he requested. “If you two would stop arguing I would be able to explain what's going on here.” After he was satisfied that they were paying attention, he continued. “If you want to get off this world we have to work together. My ship may have enough working parts to repair your ship, and then we can leave.”

“Why do you want to leave so badly?” Mira asked. “Can't you just wait for someone to come by and rescue you?”

“I've been stuck here for three years,” Hylok answered. “No one knows that I'm here, and no one is coming to rescue me. If I don't leave with you, then I may be stranded here for several more years.” He paused for a moment. “Also, there is somewhere I have to go, before it's too late.”

“And where is that?” asked Mira.

“A world. I don't know where it is, but I do know that they need help,” Hylok replied.

“How would you know that they need help if you don't know where it is?”

“I don't mean to interrupt,” Dups said, interrupting them, “but I'm going to assess our ship's damages while you two are talking.”

Hylok ignored Dups' comment as he answered Mira's question. “Dreams. I have dreams of that world.”

“Why?”
“Don't worry about it. I just do.”

“There's something that you're not telling me, isn't there?”

“Look, Mira, I told you. Don't worry about it. After we get the ship repaired and find that world, you can go your own way and not worry about it.”

“Wait just a minute here,” Mira said, raising her voice. “You not only want us to rescue you, but you also want us to take you wherever you're going? Are you crazy?!”

“Calm down, calm down. I'll of course ensure that you both will be well compensated for your troubles.”

“With what? You have nothing that we want.”

Hylok didn't want to give away too much about himself, but he had to offer some hint of something. “I can make some things,” he paused, searching for the right word, “easier for you.”

“What do you mean?” Mira asked, with a hint of curiosity in her voice.

“We'll talk on the way to your ship. I want to see how long it will take us to make these repairs. We can talk more about what will happen after that with Dups.” Hylok had no intentions of telling her, but he did have to keep her interested. The two walked back to the ship, talking about random things and getting to know each other a little bit.

….......

Meanwhile, on the planet Earth, Darth Menator, the Dark Lord of the Sith, was overseeing the rebuilding of the land's infrastructure. Everything was being demolished and replaced with structures of Sith design built by enslaved ponies. There was a reason for this beyond simply being evil; whenever a human was inside a pony-designed building, he either had to bend over, or he would bump his head. The pony buildings were simply too small. All these new buildings would remove that inconvenience and life would become so much easier for the occupying Sith forces.

The earth ponies were employed in building the new structures and in acquiring the resources for their construction. The pegasi were used to keep the weather favorable for this construction and some of the unicorns used their magic to make certain parts of the construction process easier. The other unicorns had their magic disabled and were put to work with the earth ponies. All this was overseen by the soldiers of the Sith Empire, with occasional inspections by Darth Menator or his apprentice, Darth Lo-ni Ren, known to some as the 'Destroyer of Worlds' for his role in the complete annihilation of a rebellious star system two years ago.

Now the two of them were discussing what should be done to bring the remaining areas of the planet under their control. “What parts of the planet have we yet to conquer?” asked Darth Menator, his voice raspy and cracked.

“My lord,” replied Darth Lo-ni Ren, “we have conquered the whole planet with one exception. The northern areas are still independent of our control.”

“And why is that?” asked Menator, the irritation in his voice clearly audible.

“My lord, the north is mostly a frozen wasteland, and there are many large and dangerous dragons.”

“Dragons?! Why are we letting dragons stop us?” Menator asked, angry now. “This will not be allowed to continue,” he said, not waiting for an answer. “I will take command of our forces myself and we will see how dangerous these dragons are once they face the might of the Sith Empire. They will be destroyed, and their kind will cease to exist on this pitiful excuse of a planet.”

“My lord, there is something else,” Lo-ni said, “if you would allow me.”

“What is it?”

“In the farthest reaches of the north, our scans have shown a civilization. The land appears to be arable, and it's inhabited by more of these disgusting, pacifistic ponies. It should be easy to conquer, and we will have more slaves.”

“Good, good. You have done well, Lo-ni. Go, prepare the troops. We will take transports and if all goes well, we will embark in a few days.”

“As you wish, my lord.” Lo-ni bowed slightly before turning and leaving the room. Darth Menator set about making his own preparations before the attack.

….......

After a full day and a half of nonstop repair work, the Yhfrendar was repaired and ready to go. The repairs were definitely not anything permanent, but they would get the job done. While working on the repairs, Hylok, Dups, and Mira had talked about Hylok's plan to find that planet that he was looking for. They had agreed, after some arguments and haggling, that they would take him there. After that, he would be on his own. They just had to find it first.

The three of them now sat in the cockpit of Dups' ship. Hylok was busy looking at a galactic map, trying to find a good starting place for their search. “Here,” he finally said, pointing at a blank spot on the map. He had been looking at it for nearly an hour. “This is where the planet should be.”

Dups stared at him for a moment. “Wait, why there?” he asked. “There's nothing there.” He was starting to wonder if this guy was a little crazy.

“And that is exactly why we'll find what we're looking for there,” Hylok stated confidently. “Chances are that the planet is outside of Republic space, so it won't be on any of their maps.” He paused for a moment for emphasis before continuing. “Also, this is very near the Sith Empire, which makes it more likely that the Sith have invaded it.” He sat back in his chair, waiting for a response from Dups and Mira.

Dups was about to say something but Mira spoke first, “So, the creatures of this world are in grave danger and if we do nothing we'll be giving up on them.” She shook her head. “No, I can't let that happen. I'm with you, Hylok. Let's do this.” She looked at Dups, waiting for him to pitch in with his thoughts.

Dups sighed before saying, “Ok, I guess. This is by far the craziest thing I've ever done, but as long as you follow through with your promises, Hylok, I'm down for this.” He began the engine start sequences and checked over all the systems to make sure everything was running smoothly before asking Mira, “What are the coordinates for where we suspect the planet is?”

She looked at the map one more time to confirm the numbers. “It's sector 76AG-TFR87, at reference point 21856205625-43625094.”

While Dups was putting the numbers in, Hylok asked, “How long will it take us to get there?”

“Long enough for us to get some needed sleep,” Dups replied. The ship had already left the atmosphere and he looked over the coordinates one more time. “Prepare for the jump to hyperspace.” After he had determined that everything was in order, he pressed the button and they zipped off into space. Now that the ship was in hyperspace they could finally relax. “So, Hylok, you never did say why you were on that planet,” Dups mentioned.

“I told you before,” Hylok said, “you wouldn't be interested in the story. Not only would you be bored by it, but you wouldn't understand the reasons behind it.” He ran his hand through his long hair and sighed slowly as he did. “Even I don't fully understand it. There are times when I think I do, but I only prove myself wrong later.”

“But can't you tell us anything about it?” Mira pleaded.

“Maybe some other time, but not now,” Hylok answered. 'I do have a feeling, however, that we'll be together a little longer than we expect,' he thought to himself as he walked back to the crew quarters to get some sleep. There was something about these two, something ominous.

….......

Dups brought the ship out of hyperspace when they had reached the area where they anticipated the planet would be. They weren't disappointed. “How?” Dups asked. “How could you know where the planet was? You just guessed, didn't you?”

“No, it wasn't a guess,” Hylok replied. “Just call it a ... a hunch.”

They could see that the world seemed habitable, as much of it appeared green, and there also appeared to be oceans. There was a small Sith fleet in orbit around the planet, but it wasn't big enough to cause them any trouble.

“So what do we do now?” Mira asked. “We can't just land there.”

Hylok turned to look at her. “Why not?” he asked. “All we have to do is make a normal landing, I give you want you want and go on my way and you two go yours.” He stood up and grabbed his belongings, what few he had. “Simple as that.”

“What if the Sith catch us?” asked Dups. “Then what?”

“Just focus on landing, let me handle this,” Mira told him. She turned her attention back to Hylok. “And it's not just 'simple as that'. What if something goes wrong?”

“Like what?” Hylok asked. Immediately after asking that question, the ship began rocking, followed by a power surge that fried everything in the ship. “Ah, like that,” he said.

“You two,” Dups said, “prepare for an emergency landing. “I'll try to land softly but there are no guarantees. The power to everything is out so the repulsorlift engines won't work.” Everyone sat down and buckled up. Dups began the landing procedure manually and in order to reduce their speed he kept the ship in the air as long as possible. Unfortunately, this resulted in them missing the planned landing area and instead the ship was heading for the polar region. “Prepare to land,” Dups called out. They braced for the impact and the ship hit the ground hard and plowed through the snow before finally coming to a stop.

They took a moment to orient themselves before taking some supplies and exiting the ship. The first thing they noticed was how cold and windy it was. That and the endless tundra. “We need to get moving before the Sith find us,” Hylok said. “Take what supplies we can carry and let's make our way south. We might be able to find warmer weather in a few days if we don't waste any time hanging around here.” Dups and Mira agreed, and after they had gathered some food and other supplies together, the three of them set off to get as far as they could before their food ran out.

The three ponies were crouched behind a snowbank, watching the three humans as they made their way across the snow. “They look like Sith,” Violet said quietly, hoping to not be heard by them.

“They must have made that noise that we heard earlier this morning,” Winter guessed. “It had to be them.”

“Yeah, it probably was,” Sunset agreed. “If they're Sith, I say we ...” She stopped mid-sentence when one of the humans, the one with the long hair, turned toward the ponies and apparently saw them. The three of them were frozen in fear as he began walking toward them.